Kenneth McDowell explained this profound terminology at the time, saying that the 'total idea of sport' is much greater than the 'sum of its individual parts'.
In other words, the Australian tradition and philosophy embodied in this simple word, 'sport', is much more than the highly organised professional organisations whose CEOs inhabit flush air-conditioned corporate offices; it also includes family members of all ages throwing a ball to each other on the beach, or kids in the back yard with a cricket ball and bat, or school girls playing hopscotch in the school quadrangle.
'Sport and Leisure' in Kenneth McDowell's view were connected. On top of this is another important idea - that ultimately those who watch sport and travel to do so, are in reality, Sport Tourists.
Therefore, Mark Tronson's interest in Tourism Ministry was initiated at that early time.
As part of his efforts to get the Sports and Leisure Ministry (SLM) off the ground, he met with the Churches of Christ Head of Church, Bob Smith, in Sydney. He revealed that P&O always had a chaplain along on their Easter cruises.
This helped embed the idea of a Tourism Ministry within SLM from the very beginning. Over the following decade he held seminars on Tourism Ministry at a number of our SLM national conference. These were well attended, because people were interested and fascinated.
When his family relocated to Moruya on the New South Wales south coast in 1992 to establish the athletes respite ministry at Basil Sellers House, they found ourselves on a 10 acre allotment inundated with bell miners (bellbirds).
http://birdsinbackyards.net/species/Manorina-melanophrys
From this, they developed the mini-theme park we called Australia's Bush Orchestra in 1996, which was a bush walk under the canopy of this Ironbark forest where tourists were able to read the stories of great Christian leaders as they walked along allotted paths, or just enjoy the birdsong and the sights and sounds of the bush.
As their reputation grew, the Eurobodalla Shire Council allocated one of their large brown Tourist signs in the centre of town pointing to Australia's Bush Orchestra; and this tourist facility became a feature of the community.
This was later supplemented with a one hour Moruya Historic Bus Tour which ran whenever tourists requested it. Both these tourist ministry activities were given national television airing on the religious program, Compass, in 1996.
To reciprocate this help the community had given him, he was elected as Moruya Chamber of Commerce chairman of the Tourist sub-committee for some years. He produced a Moruya Tourism flyer distributed throughout the business community and the Tourist Information Centres.
In 2000 Heads of Churches released Mark and Delma Tronson from SLM to establish a fresh ministry Well-Being Australia focusing of Respite so as to recuperate after stress ill health in which Tourism Ministry became one of his Portfolio Ministries.
When Mark Tronson's family relocated to Tweed Heads on the north coast to establish another athlete respite facility in 2006, Research and Development aspect of our new ministry, Well-Being Australia, focussed on tourism. They were now on the southern part of the famous tourism area, the Gold Coast.
This fresh Tourism Ministry is now associated with a wide range of activities associated with our Mission: the Art Ministry, Country Town Tours (in which high-profile sports people mentor the youth in remote areas), and the varied International Ministry assignments. He now look at tourism with very different eyes.
The changed nature of Tourism and Evangelism was recently made evident when his wife, Delma, and he were at the Baptist World Congress in Hawaii, and noted that 'Tourism Ministry' was placed on the agenda. The famous tourist strip of Waikiki Beach has a Sunday morning Chaplaincy Service, which is a potent aspect of tourism ministry within that community.
They featured a segment on Tourism ministry in our August newsletter, and included one example of five Japanese tourists on push bikes who called in to their home for a cuppa.
The response from their readers and supporters has been remarkable. A host of fresh suggestions have come in, along with other examples, such a ministry from a Western Australian church, which has a year round 'caravan park' ministry on the lines of the Beach Mission model.
One vision for Tourism Ministry is a network of churches around the nation appointing Tourism Chaplains in popular holiday areas. It was suggested that retired Ministers and Pastors may be able to staff such a ministry, if they wish to continue to engage in some form of pastoral care in the community without the pressures of full time church work.
There are precedents for this in the secular world. As well as the many 'grey nomads' who provide voluntary services for the towns in which they stay for a while, there are organisations such as REVISEWA which organises retired teachers to tutor students in outback Western Australia, and the CSIRO-mediated Scientist in Schools program that co-ordinates scientists to visit schools on a voluntary basis.
Experienced, active former pastors would be ideal for a Tourism Chaplaincy network.
You are welcome to contact Mark Tronson at Well-Being Australia with any comments or suggestions or interest you may have - info@markt.id.au